Maternal Antenatal Depression and Early Childhood Sleep: Potential Pathways Through Infant Temperament

Maternal depression is associated with infant and child sleep patterns, and with infant temperament. Here, we examine whether infant temperament mediated an association between maternal antenatal depression and toddler sleep.

Within the prebirth longitudinal cohort Growing Up in New Zealand, symptoms of antenatal and postnatal depression were measured in 5,568 women using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Infant temperament was measured at age 9 months using the Very Short Form of Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R VSF). Sleep duration and nighttime awakenings were reported by parents when children were 2 years old.

Independent associations of maternal depression with child sleep patterns at age 2 years, adjusted for maternal demographics, physical health, family relationships, and child health and feeding, were determined using multivariate logistic regression analysis. The odds of having ≥2 nighttime awakenings were increased for children whose mothers had antenatal (1.36, 1.07-1.73) but not postnatal (1.22, 0.88-1.68) or both antenatal and postnatal depression (0.89, 0.56-1.36). There was no association of maternal depression with shorter sleep duration. Two of five dimensions of infant temperament (fear and negative affect) were associated with both antenatal depression scores and increased nighttime awakenings. Mediation analyses controlling for postnatal depression and other predictors of child sleep supported an indirect pathway of antenatal depression to child sleep through infant temperamental negative affectivity.

Antenatal depression is independently associated with more frequent nighttime awakenings in early childhood. Findings support an indirect pathway through infant negative affect characteristics.